Spring has arrived on the Delaware River. Last night, we took Bluebird's mooring ball out and shackled it to the anchor chain, ready to hold our little boat's bow into the current whenever she's ready to be launched.
During the winter, the anchor chain was tied to a long section of yellow polypropylene line. The other end of the line was tied to a five-foot (about) section of PVC tubing, capped at both ends, with a ring at one end. This "winter stick" floated above the mooring but, unlike a mooring ball, was too thin to get tangled with all the debris that storms wash into the river, particularly during the winter.
Bluebird's mooring was the farthest offshore and upstream from the club dock. We had tied the polypropylene line only long enough for the stick to be visible at dead low tied. We actually launched the stick at low tide back in the autumn
So yesterday we waited until we thought the tide was low and went out in the Boston Whaler to look for the stick. The temperature was in the high 40s but there was a wind blowing over the cold river water. The three of us -- Del, Jim and I -- rode back and forth across the area where we knew the stick should be, but it was nowhere in sight.
The sun went behind the trees on the Pennsylvania side of the river and still there was no sign of the stick. So Del drove the boat on one more slant toward the far shore. No luck, so we decided to turn back to the dock.
Just then, off to port maybe 100 feet away, I saw the cap of the stick, only inches above the river surface.
We circled toward the cap. Leaning over the bow, I grabbed it and pulled the stick aboard. The chain was stuck in the riverbottom mud, so Jim, who was wearing work gloves took over, getting the chain aboard.
Now the white mooring ball, it's bottom half stained brown from spending last season in the river, it's top half lettered with "Bluebird", floats in its designated spot. Spring has arrived.